Izuku Midoriya: Sorcerer Supreme (Eventually)
by MoonlitWaves877
Summary: Izuku's only dream was to be a hero, but without a quirk it was just a pipe dream. It was as realistic as a fairy with knights, dragons, and... magic? There's no way. Magic isn't real, right? It's not like he could learn if it was, right? Well, thanks to a chance infinitely small possibility, Izuku shall become the world's greatest magic wielder. You know... someday.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: My Hero Academia is the property of Kohei Horikoshi and various production companies.

Key:

Normal Speech: "Sup my dude."

Screaming: "WHERE THE HELL DID IT GO!"

All Might: " **Midoriya my boy!** "

Thoughts: 'This was a horrible decision.'

* * *

" _Tag!" The sound of little feet scampering away could be heard while another voice huffed._

" _That's not fair, you had had your eyes open," the child pointed._

" _Nuh uh." The girl placed her hands on her hips and pouted her cheeks. "You just smell to bad to miss."_

 _The boy yelled back, and the girl retorted. Their voices were just two in the many dozens on the playground while recess was in session. Some had their little arguments, others laughed cheerfully, and a little further away was the group of students that always used their quirks during soccer even when the teacher was watching. Yes, this was a normal day at school._

 _Izuku Midoriya lay in the grass, watching the clouds roll by with the breeze. His outstretched hands grasped onto the grass beneath him. One might think he was enjoying a nap on a nice day, but he'd gotten anything but rest._

 _Izuku's once good friend, Katsuki Bakugou, had recently awakened his quirk, and the new found power went straight to his ego. Izuku's new normal, or more accurately described as his new life, had become a series of bad events. One session of bullying after the other, and while his teachers pitied him, they didn't do much else._

 _Izuku pulled one of his arms down to tug at the stretched out collar of his shirt. If there was anything to say about his former friend, it was that he discovered yet another talent of his. Hurting people._

 _Izuku sighed as he sat up, shaking the grass out of his already green hair. 'Recess will be over soon,' he thought to himself. 'At least I'm safe in class.'_

 _Katsuki had left Izuku in the field when he stopped reacting to the explosions, saying that it was no longer 'fun' to torment him. At the moment, he and his band of little thugs were roaming the sandbox showing off their power. Izuku noted their location and angled his walk away, towards a large tree by the swings._

' _I'll just wait in the shade, he may have burned my books but I can still write in my notepad.' Izuku was already getting the hop back in his step, resilient as always. He made a promise to himself the day he learned he had no quirk. 'That's gonna be my one and only set back,' he raised his chin and walked with pride. 'Nothing else can get in my way but me.'_

 _Before he reached the tree, Izuku heard an explosion go off behind him. He cringed, expecting a smirking Kaa-chan to be standing there, gang in-tow for another round of pick-on-Izuku. He was shocked to find however, that there was no Kaa-chan behind him. In fact, no one was. It didn't look like anyone else had even heard the explosion, as all activities were going on as per usual._

 _Izuku was prepared to write it off as a mistake, or some distant, unrelated event, but then it happened again. Closer. Izuku had heard it go off ahead of him. This time he felt the ground shake his knees, yet everyone around him hadn't so much as flinched._

" _What?" he said aloud, unable to reconcile the thunderous boom with the stark nothingness._

 _Izuku raised his arms and began to feel around. Shaking his arms in the air like a goof. It attracted the eyes of a few classmates who whispered amongst themselves._

" _It's the quirkless kid," one pointed. "What's he doing?"_

" _I don't care," replied her friend. "That Bakugou guy has my ribbons, help me get them back."_

 _Izuku ignored the conversation, still feeling around for something, anything, that would confirm what he heard._

 _Once more, a boom exploded from seemingly nowhere. This time, directly in front of Izuku. It was so close, Izuku felt his nose wiggle. He screamed in surprise. This time a teacher was nearby._

" _Midoriya-kun," a teacher called from in front of the jungle gym "What's going on?"_

 _Izuku didn't respond, but merely put his hand out. There was nothing in front of him, looking directly ahead he could see another student just a meter away looking at him like he was crazy. But then Izuku felt it. His hand was touching something. In the heat of the autumn sun, he felt his hand rest on something hard, cool, and invisible._

 _Izuku snapped his head towards the teacher and yelled, "There's something here-"_

 _But the words died on his lips. Izuku didn't see his teacher. He didn't hear the play on his classmates, nor did he feel the warmth of the sun. He didn't even feel the breeze on the back of his neck. He was surrounded in total darkness, and all he could feel was the warmth leaving his exposed arms and legs._

" _H-hello," he quietly shouted. His words didn't even echo. He looked down, and saw nothing, he reached out and felt nothing. Izuku was in a void of nothing. It was an emptiness so dauntingly large that his heart began to beat a little harder. But in the distance he saw a flash of light. It was hardly a moment, but it was there, and he screamed. In the moment of visibility, he saw a figure reaching out to him. Its finger tips were close enough to scratch his hair._

 _Izuku ran, away from the figure, towards the source of the light. "Help!" he cried, not breaking his pace to wipe his weeping eyes. "Anyone, please!?"_

 _Another flash of light, and Izuku saw that it was much closer. It didn't disappear like it had before. Izuku turned and saw that the figure hadn't left its spot. He continued running, looking back at the flash of light._

" _Please," he sobbed, "Is anyone there?"_

 _No one answered, but constant stream of light flared and Izuku gasped. He ran faster, hopeful that it was some sort of sign that someone had heard him. He neared the spot, at least he thought he did. As he got closer, the light died, and in this darkness he was sure of nothing, but he stopped running nonetheless._

 _He waited, his breath held so that he could hear the slightest motion. He small body tensed, and he lowered himself to the ground, ready to run away at a moments notice. It was a short wait, as a blinding light illuminated the area. It's brilliance was so intense that Izuku couldn't see. He blinked rapidly, trying to adjust to it. The light was no longer a flash, but a constant stream, he could finally see again._

 _It was the most awful thing he'd ever wished for._

 _Izuku couldn't put his horror into words, because as intelligent a young boy as he was, no 8 year old had the vocabulary to describe this monster. It was large, at least the size of a train car but humanoid in shape, if not a little deformed. A long thick tail sprouted from the base of its spine. It was mostly orange, but past it's wrists and ankles was an angry red, just like it's eyes. It's eyes were the worst part though, a shined over black, like a spider. But they were even worse, but they were malicious. A large maw of deformed, jagged teeth hung open as it towered over the boy._

 _It took a single step forward and Izuku feel on his back, the shaking of whatever platform he stood on had all but broken his knees. The explosions he'd heard earlier was just this monster romping around. It opened its jaws to let out an ear splitting roar. Izuku clutched at his ears but the sound still overwhelmed him._

 _He screamed back in pain and the monster took another step forward._

' _What is this, where am I, why is this happening,' Izuku begged to no one in particular. There was no one around. It was just him and a monster. If he retreated to the shadows, he couldn't see anything, and then he would just beat the mercy of whatever had reached out to him there. Izuku felt trapped and being surrounded by this infinite void wasn't helping._

" _Move boy!" Izuku's breathe caught in his throat, something had zoomed over his shoulder and towards the monster. He refused to open his eyes but he could hear the creature was screaming in pain._

" _You must leave," the voice called out again. Izuku opened his eyes and looked around. The darkness was still infinite, and he had no idea who was speaking._

" _But there's something in the dark," he cried._

" _This place is a way of passage," the voice called back in hurry, "Nothing stays for long, now run!"_

 _Izuku didn't move however. He looked back and saw that a spear was buried in the shoulder of the beast. It was using its teeth to ripped it back out. "Please help me," Izuku cried. "I don't know where I am, I just want to go home!"_

 _The monster roared before him, finally succeeding in pulling the offending object out of its shoulder. "You must run boy," The voice sounded closer, and Izuku began to reach out._

" _Please help!" The tears in his eyes flowed freely. Fear gripped his heart, his chest felt empty, he could not move. Suddenly he felt a had on his wrist. He jumped, but then the voice called out again._

" _Stay behind me," the voice which had been dull and muted had become sharp and feminine. "Hide in the dark, and do not come out until I call to you!"_

 _A woman emerged from the darkness, clad in green full body armor that connected over a red bodysuit, with black hair that swayed just past her shoulders. The she raced towards the beast, stretching her arm to her side. Izuku began to worry that she was marching to her death, but instead something incredible happened. The space around her arm began to bend. It warped and flickered, pulling towards and away from her body as a another flash of light began to emit from her. Dust began to materialize from nowhere, seemingly consolidating from the blackness._

 _In moved to her hand, taking shape and form. It formed...a stick. Admittedly a thick branch, but Izuku didn't feel any measure of confidence that the monster would feel it when it was consuming them both. Yet still, the woman sprinted forward, the dust gone and the warp of space with it, leaving her with just the stick to face a goliath._

 _Izuku wanted to close his eyes as the monster lifted its gnarled claws, surely about to cleave the girl in two. Without a moment's hesitation she swung her left arm at the hand, still holding her stick. Izuku couldn't seem to look away, and for that he is fortunate. Otherwise he would have missed something truly spectacular. In the fraction of a second that the beast's talons would have ripped through her shoulder, a bright yellow flame licked out from the unassuming stick she had summoned. It left a quickly as it had come, but it had totally severed the arm of the beast._

 _A scream of agony escaped its jaws, uselessly clutching at its new stump._

" _A yellow flame huh," the woman sounded disappointed. "And I almost thought you were dangerous."_

 _Pommel in hand, she stalked toward the beast. It seemed to have some form of intelligence, or sense of self preservation, because it jumped away. Like a roach after the lights are turned on, the great monster scurried towards the dark, and the woman did not chase it. She stopped before turning around, and from the dark Izuku saw a dazzling copper ring surrounding her irises._

" _Boy, are you still there?" She may have been asking, but Izuku saw that she was staring right at him._

" _Uh huh," he mustered, still feeling his heart beat against his ribs._

" _How did you come to this place then?" She released the stick to drop to the floor, but it was a cloud of dust the moment her fingertips released it._

" _I don't know," Izuku flinch under her glare._

" _There are 3 sanctums on this plane," she approached him, and the light she emitted began to dim to a glow, "And mine is the only one that holds a key to this place. I came because I felt a human essence open a gate here. You cannot open such a thing without the proper tools, so I ask again, how did you come here?"_

 _Izuku almost wanted to run back into the dark, which was almost preferable to the intensity of her glare. "I heard a boom, and then I felt something in my way." Izuku recalled the moments as best he could, "Then I don't know. I didn't feel like a moved, everything just changed around me. I was at school and then I wasn't."_

 _The armored woman seemed dissatisfied with that answer. "And is there anything else you aren't saying?"_

" _Nuh uh," Izuku fervently shook his head under her gaze. "I promise."_

 _She brought her hand up to her face, cupping her right side with a plated armor hand. "This is troubling, to think that this place was so easily found, and by someone that had no intention no less." She began walking away, and with her went the light that was illuminating this barren world._

 _Izuku hurriedly followed her, "Um, ma'am?"_

" _I felt no difference in difficulty when I entered this place, perhaps it is simply the child."_

" _Excuse me, armor lady?"_

" _But then why do I feel nothing from him. He has absolutely no dormant connection that I can feel, and it should have been totally impossible for him to reach this place even with one."_

 _Izuku seeing that she was deep in her own mind began to tap his knuckles on her armor, which brought her eyes down to his own fearful expression._

" _I don't know how to get home from here."_

" _What," she was stunned, "Go the way you came."_

" _But I don't know how I got here?" Izuku turned and twisted, "I ran because I saw someone else and then I found a monster and then-"_

" _Someone else?" Izuku looked up to see her sharply observing the darkness. "Who."_

" _I don't know, I can't see in the dark." Izuku looked down rather embarrassed. "Could I please go home?"_

" _Each inch of this place connects to another area in the infinite multiverse." Izuku gawked at her words. "Furthermore, they connect to different moments in the time's of those universes."_

" _What's that supposed to mean?" Izuku was already deeply afraid of her answer._

" _It means that you could search for a hundred years and you might only find one space that will bring you back to your universe, and it still might not be at the place you left it," she shook her head, "Or even the same century."  
_

" _So what do I do?" Izuku cried to the woman, already spraying tears._

" _The first thing you should do is stop crying. Aside from rusting my armor, you'll dehydrate yourself and die faster."_

 _The stream of tears only intensified. "Die faster!"_

" _I suppose it doesn't matter, there nothing to eat here so it's likely that you'll die no matter what. And what with you being so small those things might just come back to eat you later."_

" _That's awful," Izuku began to shake uncontrollably. His chances of getting home were slim to none and that was if he could survive. What would his mom think? What would Katsuki do? This is awful and… was she laughing?_

" _By the infinite gods you're gullible aren't you." She held a single hand in front of her mouth to hide a smile._

" _None of that was funny!" Izuku screamed._

" _Perhaps not to you." She made a following motion with her palm, "Give me your arm."_

 _Izuku was hesitant to do so. He wasn't sure how much he trusted her after what she just said. She saw this and decided to give him a warm smile._

" _This won't hurt, and I promise it will help me get you back home sooner." Izuku was still wary, but he tenderly stuck out his arm._

 _She placed one palm above his own, and another under his forearm. Slowly, Izuku felt the bones of his hand begin to rattle. He tearfully looked at the woman, but she laughed._

" _It's nothing to be afraid of, I'm just trying to find your frequency."_

" _My frequency?" Izuku hand taken a moment to realize that while jarring, the vibrations did not hurt. In fact, they almost tickled. "Like a radio?"_

" _I'm not sure what that is, but on my world we had televisions."_

" _We have those too!" Izuku excitedly replied._

" _Well we're doing something like flipping channels. I'll find which one is one the same frequency as you, and then we can take you home."_

" _Okay." Izuku relaxed a little, and noticed an oddity about her appearance._

" _Your eyes aren't gold anymore, there purple." He marveled at the unprecedented change, and she laughed at his little shock._

" _Yes, this is their natural color," she slowly moved her hand to hover closer to his elbow, "But using certain magics can change them for a time."_

" _Magic?" Izuku looked at her inquisitively. "Is that your quirk's name?"_

" _Quirk?" The woman let her mind wander, "I'm not familiar with the concept."_

" _WHA!" Izuku didn't fall on his face purely because she held a tight grip on his shoulder, "How can you not know what a quirk is?"_

" _I suppose my world just has a couple differences from yours." Sensing how how long this process could take, she decided to probe him for information. "Why don't you tell me what a quirk is."_

 _Izuku beamed at the woman, "It's this awesome super power that's in your DNA, and when it's activated you can do cool stuff like lift mountains and stop bad guys!"_

" _Oh, that sounds like a mutation." The woman lightly smiled, "I've seen a few worlds where mutations are the common means of power, but I've never heard of one where they are called quirks."_

" _That's too bad," Izuku sighed, "Quirks are awesome."_

" _Well why don't you tell me about yours?" The woman saw all too quickly how Izuku deflated._

" _The doctor said I don't have one," the boy sniffled, just a bit. "He said that it's rare but it can happen. When I grow up I'm not gonna have all cool powers."_

" _Hey now, it's okay." She freed one hand to ruffle his hair, "I come from a world where lots of people have powers too. And I was born without any."_

" _Really?" Izuku wondered how that could be seeing as what she did to that monster was downright incredible._

" _Really," the gestured to behind her, "What you just saw me do was all stuff I had to learn."_

" _No way," Izuku marveled at the woman before him. "I wanna learn too, then I can be a hero like All Might and save people!"_

 _The woman's eyes saddened at that, "I'm sure you could, but it's not my place to find apprentices or teach them."_

" _Well what can I do?" The boy was still in an excited state from the thought of a learned power. "How can I start."_

 _Before he could received an answer, he heard a sound. But it wasn't like the booming he'd heard on the playground, or the roaring of the monster from before. It was like a...flap. Almost like a flag in the breeze. Izuku hard it again, underneath him, and above him, and behind him, and all around. He was surrounded by the noise._

" _Looks like I found it," the woman removed her hands and started to walk backwards. Izuku tired to follow but only managed to run into a wall. Panicked, he started to breathe faster, twisting and turning in another invisible box, but then she lower to his level._

" _Don't be afraid, Izuku," her voiced soothed him just a bit, "This will take you home, safe and sound."_

 _No longer frightened, Izuku looked up to her eyes as she rose to full height and walked away. "But you didn't say how I can get strong like you!"_

" _It's simple," she cupped her hands together, and as she pulled them apart, dust began to pour out, drifting towards Izuku on a nonexistent breeze. "When you see someone that needs help, protect them, and on the day that it truly matters, I will come to you." The ashen gray sands swirled around Izuku, consolidating at his wrist to find a new form. Green cloth bands with silver trim, tied around his little wrist._

 _Looking away from his new accessory, Izuku found that the woman was gone, before he'd even gotten a name. The flapping noises had ceased, and Izuku felt his body float away, comforted only by the warmth of the sun. He was back on the playground. Everything as he'd left it, but he could feel the band on his wrist before he'd looked. Felt its weight on his being before he set his eyes on it. It was all the proof he needed to know that what he'd seen was real._

* * *

The alarm went off, automatically tuning into Izuku's favorite station, 24/7 updates on hero activities and teams. Izuku decided to lie down for a few more minutes, and let the dream completely leave his mind.

Turning over, he stepped out of bed. He always felt so strange after that dream. It wasn't like coming out of any other dream. Everything from the air on his skin to the light in his eyes felt surreal after he woke up.

"Izuku," Inko called from behind the door. "Are you awake yet?"

"Yeah mom," Izuku rubbed the dust out of his eyes. "I'm getting ready for school."

"Well I just got the mail and you have a letter," Izuku raised his brow, "I just slip it under the door, but you have a package on the table too."

"Alright, thanks Mom." Izuku pushed himself off of the bed.

'Who would be sending me mail?' He reached down to pick up the crisp letter, and flipped it over. 'What? There's no name, or mailing address. How does Mom know it's even for me, or that it was even supposed to be for this house?'

Izuku was prepared to toss the letter away but found that it was stuck to his hand. Thinking it was just an uncommonly strong static attraction, but after shaking his arm the letter stuck. Izuku brought his other hand up to pull it away but the letter wouldn't budge. The paper didn't even crinkle.

"What even is this?" Izuku was about to step on the paper and push off the ground when the paper just released. It float away from Izuku before freezing in its descent.

The letter began to open, and from it float a piece of paper. No bigger than a post-it note. Izuku stumbled backward onto his bed, watching it float there, seemingly indifferent to gravity.

A splotch of black ink began to bleed out of the paper, organizing itself into three words across the paper. 'See you soon.'

Izuku swallowed. A speck of dust irritated his eye. Rubbing it off of his face he blinked at the absence of the paper and letter casing. In the instant that he closed his eyes they had both disappeared.

Izuku rushed to his feet, pushing open his door and dashing past his mother to get to the kitchen.

"Izuku slow down!" She hopped behind him, but Izuku was still moving.

'It's probably someone with a teleportation quirk just messing with me.' Izuku rounded the corner and saw a small brown package sitting on the table. 'Maybe someone who could read my dreams and wants to make a joke.'

He tapped on the box and it came apart at the seams. Izuku held his breath and what it was holding. Inko came up behind him to glance at the small piece that her son was seemingly beholden to.

"What is this Izuku?" Inko was just a little worried for her son, as he hadn't taken his eyes off of it.

"It's a gift," Izuku gently picked it up, turning it in his hands. Everything about it, from the smallest grove to the weight, was just like how he'd dreamed. "My friend sent it it."

"Your friend sent you a bracelet?" Izuku laughed lightly as he slipped it over his wrist, a perfect fit.

"She made it herself." Izuku walked back to his room, gathering his things for school. "It's been so long it almost feels like a dream."

'But it wasn't,' Izuku thought to himself. 'It was real, all of it. Everything she said was real. Magic and other worlds. It wasn't a dream.'

Izuku felt a giddy warmth spread through his chest. It was like he was floating on his happiness.

"I'm going to be a hero," he sung to himself, getting into his school uniform. "I'm going to be a real hero!"

"Izuku, why are you yelling?" Inko's concerned voice floated through his open door.

"I don't know," Izuku called back, smile still on his face.

* * *

 **All right, that's the end of it. I mean for now anyway. If this gets enough followers or enough reviews I'll continue it but I make no promises. I'm already pretty happy with my first story.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: My Hero Academia is the property of Kohei Horikoshi and various production companies.

Key:

Normal Speech: "Sup my dude."

Screaming: "WHERE THE HELL DID IT GO!"

All Might: " **Midoriya my boy!** "

Thoughts: 'This was a horrible decision.'

 **Hey guys, its been awhile. I'm here with the second chapter, but I'll save announcements to the end.**

* * *

Izuku hopped up and down as he waited for the street light to turn green. Every few seconds he would glance down at the band along around his wrist, partly to assuage his fear that it may disappear, and partly to keep feeding his unbridled joy.

For so long, he'd believed that his dream was just that. A falsehood his subconscious had made in order to satisfy his unrealistic desire to be a hero. But now he knew that it was real. He could be a real hero, and it would only require hard work. It could take him his whole life, and it would all be worth it.

The light turns green, and Izuku dashes across the street. He darted his eyes to every corner, and observed every face. Anyone that even looked like the woman he met would be enough of a sign for him.

She had reached out to him through the mail, so she must be nearby. He hoped he would find her before school at least. A quick look at his screen told him he had about one hour.

And so he searched the city. Sprinting past everyone from elderly walkers to small time superheroes, Izuku ducked into every crevice and alley. Not once did he see anything out of the ordinary. For a long time he sat down, eyes closed and breathing steady. He tried to reach out with his mind, but after a solid 5 minutes of thinking the words 'please call me' like a desperate ex, he opted to slam his head into the nearest wall. It was a deeply concerned old woman that had to snap him out of it, and just in time for him to realize that he was a full half hour late for school.

Running through the gates, Izuku quietly chanted to himself, "Don't notice me, don't notice me, please god don't notice me."

Izuku climbed the stairs, and slowed to crawl. Quietly he stalked to the door. Of course he'd been late for the last day of school looking for a magical woman. He should have known that it was just some prank.

He dropped his head, and opened the door. He waited for the teacher to berate him, or or Kaa-chan to insult him, or just the general heckling of his other classmates, but the room was totally silent. Except for a clink. Specifically the clink of a tea cup or a plate.

'What?' he thought.

Izuku raised his head, a single eye open to see something very out of the ordinary. It looked like a dojo crossed with a tea room, like something straight out of the feudal era. At the center of the room was a small kneeling table, on top was a teapot and two steaming cups of translucent light green water.

Izuku looked around. He was in the same hallway. Same school. This was his classroom, yet the interior was completely different, it was even a bit bigger. Where were his classmates and teacher? Did they just magically dis..ap...pear? Magic?

Izuku's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree before he jumped through the doorway. The door shut and locked behind him as he took a seat at the table. In his seated position he turned his head from side to side, it seemed he was alone but he silently believed that this was just another illusion like the paper from earlier that morning.

"Well you look excited," a familiar voice said from above. "To bad you're an hour late."

Izuku lifted his head, and experienced just a taste of vertigo. Sitting crossed legged on the ceiling while calmly sipping a glass of tea was her. The woman he had met inside that endless void, the one who saved him.

'I never did get her name,' he realized silently.

"I was looking for you," he said nervously.

"Really? Why?" She set the cup down, "I've been here the whole time."

"Yeah, but I didn't think that… Well I was trying to find a.." Izuku met her violet eyes and shook his head, "I'm having a hard time talking to you on the ceiling."

"That's perfectly natural, most people aren't accustomed to inconsistencies in their perceptions."

"I'm not sure I understand," Izuku noticed how the tassels on her armor were hanging towards the ceiling.

"You feel the weight of gravity do you not?"

He shook his arms, "Yeah."

"Yet you see me, and while there are quirks in your world that make it fairly common to see people stick to surfaces or fly, you see that my hair is flowing, in your eyes, upward, as are the other pieces of my attire. This is a flaw, or at the least suggests that two sources of gravity are present. Would you not call that strange?"

"Well when you put it like that," Izuku scratched his head.

"Don't be concerned. This is among the more simple tiers of magical abilities, as sort of advanced beginner spell, and one that you shall learn if you choose to accept me as your teacher."

Izuku furrowed his brow, "You said that it wasn't your place to find or train disciples."

"Yes, that _was_ true," she took another sip of tea, which for what Izuku assumed to be the same reason her hair was falling downward didn't pour out of the cup, "But quite a bit has happened since then."

"Then why would I say no?" Izuku asked.

"Because this," she flick her hand to the wall behind him and a swirling black vortex opened up behind him, "This is only an invitation to train. As I understand it, your academic classes end today, and summer is to begin."

"That's right," Izuku took a hesitant step away from the portal. He looked up at the ceiling but it was changed. There was no table or tea or woman there. He blinked, looking back down only to see that she was standing behind him.

"You may think of this as the first class of summer school." She reached up a single hand, flicking Izuku on the forehead, yet the single movement had hit him with enough force to sending him flying. In an instant Izuku was surrounded by the swirling darkness that had been peering past the portal.

"Move forward and flourish, Midoriya," The portal began to close on the woman's face, "Or this will be the end of your journey on this path."

* * *

A breeze brushed the hairs on his neck, and he opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was the clouds, which stood out by virtue of the fact that they were green….against a pink sky. No, the sky wasn't pink, it was sunset. And those weren't green clouds, they were gas bombs.

Izuku sat up, looking around he saw he was in the middle of a war zone, but it all felt strange. The weapons weren't things like guns and artillery, but swords and cannons. Sabers and lances lay broken and shattered on the battlefield. All around him, Izuku could hear the sounds of war; battle cries, clashing metals, the roar of cannons opening fire.

" _War on this Earth is different than any other_ ," the voice of that women vibrated from within his mind. Izuku could feel her words against his skull, just slightly louder than the fighting around him. " _The people here have managed to make chemical weapons, planes, even armors that could withstand cannon fire. Yet, they have managed to avoid the simplest of things like communications or travel methods beyond the horse and chariot. They have overlooked the most basic applications of health and medicines as well._ "

"What are you saying?" Izuku could hardly stand, the stench of blood, freshly spilt, had assaulted his senses. "Why are they fighting?"

" _I'm trying to make you understand that the people of this Earth have dedicated themselves to developing the art of war, and only in its most brutal forms. They have not developed firearms, but they have found chemical weapons and biological agents. They forsake progress for more efficient means of causing destruction and death. They have no medicine, they have no peace. They are savages in the most brutal ways. This fight, this war, it's over a border dispute. A border that belongs to neither of their lands."_

Izuku climbed to the top of a hill, each step revealed a new scream to haunt his dreams, but it was almost as though a force compelled him forward. Everything slowed to a crawl as he peered over the edge, blood flew through the air, nimbly sliding against the blades of soldiers. A hundred lay dying, but hundreds more still fought, and Izuku could feel the sight brand itself into his mind.

" _When faced with a people that exist to war and destroy, people that have made not attempt to understand each other, and people that indulge in their fellow man's pain, do you believe them to be worth saving?_ "

"What kind of question is that?!" Izuku screamed into the winds, "If you have power than shouldn't you stop this, why even ask if they're worth saving?!"

" _Ours is an order of defenders. Our place is not to command nor is it to condemn. If you wish to be a hero than you ought to know, you do not lead humanity, you guide it. Set the example they should follow and hope that they_ choose _to walk down that path. Now once again, do you believe these people are beyond saving or that they are worth saving?_ "

"Everyone is worth saving," Izuku gulped, "I won't even consider anything else."

" _Talk is cheap, boy. Look away from the setting sun, and tell me what you see._ "

Izuku stopped his search, and did as she said. All there was to see was heavy forestry, with the sun going down, the shadow of the tree tops was nigh impenetrable, but a single gleam escaped it's depths. The reflection of a weapon, perhaps the glare of one's armor.

"Someone's trying to escape?"

" _Not quite," she sounded sad. "Just a mile in that direction is a village. The invaders came in order to destroy it, and those soldiers were not escaping to it. They intend to strike while the warriors are gone. All that's left are children and the wounded._ "

It was all Izuku needed to hear. Already he was sprinting towards the forest, empty handed and without any idea what he should do if he caught up to the threat.

" _Have you heard nothing? This world is one of death and war. There is no medicine to treat those wounded, and should they survive they will only go on to kill more. Those children will only know suffering and war. They will grow and cause more suffering and war."_ Izuku ran further, jumping over forlorn weapons and bodies, doing his beast not to vomit. " _Those soldiers are warriors, bred and born to kill. Even if you catch up, it'll take them no time at all to gut you, boy."_

Izuku didn't respond as he entered the forest. Inside the treeline, the canopy of leaves left the forest in pitch black. Still, after coming from the pitch black of a portal, Izuku found that he could see just fine. The soldiers weren't so far ahead, it must have been that armor weighing them down. Izuku could catch up, but now he needed a plan of action.

" _Fine then, die a pointless death on a nameless battlefield where your mother will never find you._ " Izuku stumbled for the first time. It his rush to action, he hadn't even considered it. "D _ie a death that will mean nothing in the face of this total war. One more life added on to the thousands, the only significance of it being that i_ _t_ _was so insignificant."_

Izuku's face soured. Each word held truth, he was hard pressed to deny them. Nevertheless, he kept forward. Fare ahead of him, Izuku could see the soldiers stumble around, arms outstretched and waving in front of them. Izuku felt the gears turn as one soldier fell onto his face before getting back up.

'They can't see in this dark,' Izuku almost smiled, 'But I can.'

" _It won't take long for them to adjust I'm sure. Then you can b_ _e murdered and killed for the sake of murders and killers._ "

'How long until their eyes adjust to the dark,' Izuku now kept a distance from the group, travelling slower know. He could no longer hear the clashing of metal in the war zone behind him. He was too deep in the woods for the sound to reach him. 'Can they hear me if I'm this far away? There's too much on the ground for me to avoid making a noise, but what if I wasn't on the ground…"

" _So determined to die? Don't confuse that for bravery, child. This is foolish. Why won't you just admit that magic is not worth it?_ "

'This isn't about magic anymore," Izuku surprised himself with his thoughts, 'It's not about them deserving to be saved either. I just can't watch this happen. I can't let someone be hurt if I can do something about it.'

" _Then you're far more foolish than I thought. You hold so little value to your life that you'd throw it away for mongrels and killers."_

'If I'm foolish then you're a hypocrite,' Izuku pulled himself up into a tree, scrambling for footholds and stable branches, 'You said that it isn't our place to condemn people. So it isn't my place to judge, and it isn't yours either.'

Izuku now shakily stood on a low hanging branch, overlooking the soldiers who had stopped to rest. He was in the perfect position to drop on the first, but the way they were positioned, he could only hit one before the other two would be on him. Surely, he could capitalize on their panic for the first split second, but after that. He grimly sighed. It wouldn't be a very noble way to go, but if he could even try to save a life, it would mean something to him.

" _No, I brought you to this place, but I will not carry your corpse on my conscious. Stay yourself, and repeat my words. I'm giving you a spell."_

'What,' Izuku nearly slipped. 'What spell could I learn in the next few seconds?'

" _Obviously not a very good one, but one that will serve its purpose. Just know this, it is a verbal command, and therefore it calls upon external energies. If you are incapable of drawing them in, the rest will have to come from your internal stores._ "

'Whatever works,' Izuku reasoned, preparing himself for whatever she said.

" _Before this though, I'll say that you've already failed the test."_ Izuku's heart sank, _"I can take you home now. All you have to do is say so. or don't, and march toward death._ "

'I don't care,' he brazenly said, 'If this is the first and last time I use magic, it won't be for you. It's for the people you won't save.'

" _Repeat my words child,"_ she began, coldly spitting the last word, _"State your name, and then mimic me to the letter."_

Izuku waited, memorizing each and every syllable. The soldiers stood back up, apparently their rest was over, but it was in perfect timing with the spell's ending.

"I am Izuku Midoriya," the soldiers turned on their heels, weapons at the ready, against the specks of light the broke open the canopy, they could see the outline of the boy, "Bone of my blade and the blood that stains it."

"What's this supposed to be, their line of defense," the one on the left snorted. "He's unarmed, and he's thin as a twig."

"I am a defender," Midoriya continued, "The one who guides and serves to be emulated."

Izuku began to feel a tug on his gut, a hollow sort of pull within his core. The space between his hands wavered in a very familiar way, just like it had in hers so many years ago.

"Oi," the soldier on the left pointed at his hands, "Did you see that?"

"I am a magus," the hilt of a blade began to extend from the warped space, and his doubled, as if someone spoke over him, " _I am a nexus of infinite magic._ "

"What's that happening to his voice," the last of the soldiers drew his saber, "He's doing something weird."

" _This magic runs like blood in my veins,_ " the tug in his gut had abruptly turned into a wrenching pain the twisted his muscles and skin into shambles. It was pain beyond anything he'd ever felt, and his words became a strained grunt as he continued, " _It it my blood, and it stains my blade._ "

"Stop him, stop him now!" The soldiers began a mad charge, dragging their swords behind them in preparation for an upwards strike. The weapon Izuku was conjuring was still forming, almost half of the blade had left the warp space with the handle pointing upwards.

Izuku felt an immense pain, the crushing force in his stomach began to squeeze the life out of him. It was sapping him of strength, but it was replacing that strength as well. The power was beginning to fill him, pooling in his stomach and spreading outward. The soldier's approach slowed to a crawl, as did the falling leaves in the air. He held between his hands warped space, sucking in the air around it like a black hole, but producing something new.

" _I am my blade, stained with my blood and my magic_ _,_ " the last inch of the weapon left the warped space, hovering in the air. The length of the sword went from his toe to his collar, and everything from the hilt to the edge was ashen gray. " _I will cut down those that seek to cause harm_ _!_ "

As Izuku caught the blade, he found himself keenly aware of three things. First, the soldiers were directly under him and jumping to cut him as he stood, second, he was still seeing them as if the ran through molasses, and third, the solid blade he now wielded was alive with power, and weighted less than a first of sand.

Izuku jumped away from the branch, meaning to land right behind the man he intended to jump on. His legs however were supercharged. He'd only meant to gently push off the branch, but now he was practically flying. With the rush of air flowing over him, Izuku could realized that the breath wasn't on his skin, it was beneath it. It was less like a breeze and more like crackling lightning. Lightning that boomed in his heart and powered his every step. When he finally touched the ground, Izuku was over 10 yards away with the sword held proudly in his hands. A smile and a challenge danced on his lips as the soldiers stood bewildered at the display.

Feeling confident, he ran towards the three, clearing those 10 yards in a split second. He swung the flat of the blade at the first ones head, shocked to see that rather than just knock against the armor, the sword totally passed through it like a ghost.

'Glad I hit him with the dull end,' Izuku winced seeing the man crumple to the floor.

" _Congratulations, you sparred a murderer's life. Now every life that he takes from here on out will be your responsibility._ "

'Great, that just means you can let me deal with that instead of being an ass,' Izuku replied, jumping away from the next sword's swing aimed straight at his neck. Izuku was surprised at how easily he was moving, even as the pain subsided from his body, 'I feel incredible, but my body still hurts.'

" _Using magic has the effect of rejuvenating the body,"_ she explained, " _How ever, it comes with a price. All power has a price."_

Izuku let himself move with the blades momentum, escaping a sweeping slash that could have bisected him. He brought a foot up to his opponents armored abdomen, intending to kick himself away, but was shocked to see that his opponent was the one flying off.

With a sick crack, the soldier's head bounded off the trunk of a tree. Izuku was so surprised that he let his grip on the sword go.

Suddenly everything felt off. He was chilling cold and burning hot. The world was spinning so fast he couldn't stand straight. His body was just in pain, it was in agony. Something was ripping him apart and tying the pieces in little bows. The pain that Izuku had suffered to use the spell was back in full force.

" _Pain is that price._ "

He convulsed on the ground, doing his best to avoid screaming in pain. Through his one opened eye he say the blade lying next to him and knew. He needed to get it back or he was going to die from this feeling.

It took every iota of control he had to reach out. Every inch was a mile and every twig he scraped his hand against was a razor. Just before his fingers could brush against the hilt, the final soldier rushed towards him. He slammed his boots on Izuku's fingers and the boy cried out.

Kicking the sword away, he sneered at the child beneath him. "That's enough of that, boy," he spat. "I'm not sure what that sword did for you but it's over."

Izuku just made out his words, his mind almost numb from the pain. He watched helplessly as the man drew out a broadsword from his sheath. Using both hands, he raised it into the air, the tip angled to rip through Izuku's heart.

But he didn't bring it down. He just stood there, still crushing Izuku's hand, still glaring daggers into the boy's eyes, still holding the weapon in the air. What was he waiting for?

Did he want Izuku to beg? To see the fear in his eyes? To savor the moment? As he thought of these things Izuku noticed something else. It was quite. Unnaturally quiet. There were no crickets, not rustling grass, not even the breeze. The trees were still. Every leaf on every branch was motionless. The leaves in the air were frozen.

Through his pain, Izuku realized that every last thing was totally frozen, including him.

'Is this...more magic?' He stared at the blade that was going to be stuck through his heart. 'Is this my punishment? Do I have to lie here and wait for my death to start up again?'

"Your quite the morbid young man." Izuku's breath hitched, in a sense. As it stood, he wasn't actually breathing, nor was his heart beating. "Is that the norm of your universe?"

"Oh," Izuku half relaxed. "Are you here to call me stupid for failing your dumb trial?"

"You've got a bit more attitude than before," the woman that sent him to this place glared down at him.

"I'm about to die," he plainly replied.

"A fair point, but you jump to too many conclusions." She spread her arms and allowed a pile of dust to pour out onto the ground. With a flick of her wrist, it jumped up, forming three spikes of gray stone. One pointed at each of the frozen soldier's arms, and the last at his neck. Izuku realized with a start that they were slowly moving to make a pin cushion out of the man.

"What are you doing," he whispered.

"Make your choice," she stopped the pikes motion. "Permit me to kill him, and I'll take you on as my successor, regardless of your failed trial."

She then pulled the spikes back a bit, inching away from the frozen killer's neck.

"Or tell me to stop. I'll unfreeze time and he will murder you."

Izuku searched the woman's eye, she didn't blink. Izuku forced himself to tilt his head. Even that small act caused his body to wail in refusal. With a glance he looked at the two soldiers he had beaten before. Dazed and confused, they were alive. Izuku didn't attempt to move and face her again.

"What if you just knocked him out?"

"No." There wasn't a moment's hesitation. "I've given you your options, now choose."

Izuku grimaced at the thought. Kill a man to spare his own life, or die and let that man go on to kill again. Neither sat well in his stomach. He closed his eyes, and thought.

"I'm waiting, boy." She was cold and detached, "One life or the other?"

Izuku didn't answer. He was staring at her armor. It was a strange thing to note as he contemplated death, but it was absolutely spotless. More so, the polish was reflective in its perfection, and the shadow of the forest printed across the gleam, but there was a speck of light bouncing off her side. In a forest this thick and with the sun setting, there shouldn't have been any light to bounce off. He looked a little closer, and saw that there was a figure being reflected in her armor as well.

"Me," he said. There was absolution in his voice. "Unfreeze time, let him kill me."

She snorted, "Why?"

"Because I saw the soldiers behind me." Izuku had deciphered it. That gleam bouncing off her armor was coming from a blade. Izuku knew there was at least one man behind him. Too far away to rescue Izuku, but his enemy hadn't seen him. He'd never escape.

"An ally that escaped the battle, probably coming to join the slaughter," she didn't meet Izuku's eyes, and he knew he'd gotten her.

"Wrong," Izuku chewed out. "That pose, he was running, and his sword in the air. He's not coming to kill a dying kid he's here to protect his people."

"Don't be so sure," she let the spears of dust recede into her armor.

"But I am," he said. "Even if I die, that village is safe, those people are safe. I'm not changing my answer."

"And if you're right?" she pressed, "All you've done is decided that two people shall die instead of one. Why not be economically about it, and survive to learn magic?"

"Because if you're my teacher, I don't want it. And I don't want someone else to die for me, not even a killer," Izuku looked at her with a solid eye, one that held unmovable resolve.

The woman looked at him. She turned on her heel, and disappeared into nothingness. No lights, no puff of smoke, just a blink and she was gone.

" _Do not regret your choice._ "

Izuku watched the leaves resume their shaking in the breeze. He felt the air brush against his skin, and closed his eyes. The sound of metal cutting through the air was all he could hear. It wouldn't be long.

At least it shouldn't have been. Perhaps his mind was playing tricks on him, but these last split seconds of his life were awfully long. He took a deep breath and found that it was simple. Easy.

With a start he opened his eyes. He wasn't in pain anymore, and he wasn't lying on the forest floor waiting to be skewered. He was sitting down. There was a steaming cup of tea in his hands, and that woman, was sipping from hers. A soft smile played on her features as she set it down.

"I swear on my name, Zelma Stanton, that you, Izuku Midoriya, have passed the first trial." She waved her hand and the table disappeared. Izuku's hands no longer held tea, but a small ring. "As such, you have earned the privilege to learn the mystic arts. If you accept, then please, place that ring on your finger, and rise."

Izuku swallowed. Rapidly glancing between the ring and the woman, now named Zelma, nervously shook. "Yeah, that sounds good."

* * *

 **Hey peeps, after popular demand (which I didn't expect) I've decided to continue this story. I can't make any promises as to my updating schedule, but I'll make sure it's at least once a month. What did you think of this chapter and how are Izuku's abilities going to progress?**

 **Don't worry, I'm not making him OP, but I'm giving him some variety. Speaking of which, first and simplest of the magical arts, Izuku's going to learn basic incantations. No spoilers though.**

 **Hope you enjoy, and peace out, Moon Moon away! (And for anyone curious, Zelma Stanton is an apprentice of doctor strange.)**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Disclaimer: My Hero Academia is the property of Kohei Horikoshi and various production companies.

Key:

Normal Speech: "Sup my dude."

Screaming: "WHERE THE HELL DID IT GO!"

All Might: " **Midoriya my boy!** "

Thoughts: 'This was a horrible decision.'

 **Guess who? Pfft, as if you came here for someone else. Yes, it is I, your friendly, neighborhood, dumb as rocks writer, Moon Moon (no affiliation to the meme) back with another chapter of your favorite magical cinnamon roll. Enjoy, and thanks to all those review, favs, and follows.**

* * *

Izuku appraised the band that now fit snugly on his right ring finger. Much like the bracelet that wrapped itself around his left wrist, it was ashen gray, but with a single jade gem fixed within the middle. Izuku found it reminiscent of his own eye, at least in its shade. He titled his hand, and the light that passed through it came out a ghostly green, casting a shade on his bedroom wall.

Despite its unique design and color scheme, the ring itself looked rather unremarkable. From a distance it was practically invisible. The only reason Izuku was so drawn to it, besides its obviously magical origin, was the quiet thrum that had felt coming off of it.

 _Thump._

Oh, and it had a heartbeat. That was something to note as well. From the moment he'd put it on, the ring had started to pulse with life, slowing and rising with his own heartbeat.

"It lives as you live, and as long as your heart beats, the ring shall pulse," he repeated Zelma's words to himself. While many details to his new accessory escaped him, Zelma had taken a moment to explain to him what it was.

" _All magic will have a price_." Those were her words. " _When you draw from an external source, that price is a little less, but it is there. When you draw from yourself, which most advanced spells do, the price shall be great._ "

Izuku had almost fainted at hearing that what he experienced was on the lesser spectrum of pain, but Zelma waved him off. " _No, what you felt when you crafted the sword wasn't the typical price. That was simply the effect of one's first use of magic. The stone in that ring is the result of your first use of magic. Your first spell was an incantation, as such your gem represents such. Within it is your power, but it can act as a conduit for the greater magics. An admirable quality to be in possession of."_

Sitting up, Izuku stared at the large pile of books that lay across his desk. There were dozens of them, and after skim reading the first eight his headache had reached biblical proportions. Each one was filled with minor and basic incantations, though he had yet to try any of them.

" _You must wait for your natural energies to restore themselves,_ " she insisted. " _You'll have plenty of time to practice, but until we next meet, you should rest and study. I'll be quizzing you after all._ "

So that had been it. Three straight days of study and rest. Now that summer break had begun, it was all he had to do. Each day he would read as much as he could, and dedicated himself to memorizing at least one spell. It would seem that the vast majority of them were single word summoning, but every now and then he found some with entire paragraphs for single actions.

Now it was midnight of the third day and Izuku hadn't used magic once. Feeling the ring beat once more, he bounced to his feet.

72 hours was plenty rest. Besides, he would be careful, one basic spell would satiate him until he next saw his teacher. Izuku sorted through the mountain of tablets, scrolls, and magical textbooks until he found his mark. A purple and black book, bound in leather, and large lettering on the title.

"This is it, 'Concept and Practice: Spell's Beginning.' Where was the page?" Izuku flipped through the text, looking for the write passage. "Here it is."

Izuku shuffled through another, equally ridiculous, pile of notebooks filled to the brim with his own notes on the various books.

"I might have more notes on magic than I do heroes," Izuku said aloud. Not a small feat to anyone that knew him.

Holding the old texts open with one hand, Izuku flipped through the oldest notebook with the other. He sorted through the paragraphs of notes, dozens of replicated and original diagrams, and a few theories he'd made about certain spells, but eventually he found what he was looking for.

Reading from his own paraphrasing, Izuku repeated, "Magic is the most fundamental science. It is the art of understanding and manipulating the energies of the universe, and universes beyond it." He scribbled a few more notes while he repeated them under his breath, "Matter is just energy condensed, therefore it to is energy to be manipulated. The most basic of spells, spoken incantations, are used to familiarize magic users. It's rare for an advanced mage to continue using such spells."

He turned his head back to the book and smiled. The most basic spell was levitation, and it made sense. It doesn't get any easier than moving something from one space to another. All he head to do was touch it with the palm of his hand, and once he was a little ways away, he would manipulate it to move.

Izuku thought about levitating his backpack or even his bed, but ultimately, the pencil in his hand seemed the least dangerous option. Following the pages instructions, he palmed the pencil before dropping it on his mattress. Backing up till his back hit the wall, Izuku muttered a single word and raised his hand..

"Volante _,_ " his stated. Izuku waited, trying to feel if there was any change in himself or the pencil. He felt none, and the pencil hadn't moved.

It was dull and lifeless, not even an inch out of place. Izuku felt the familiar shortfall of disappointment, but not defeat.

He stood taller, raised his hand, and cleared his mind of all thoughts. He stared at the pencil and thought of it cutting in half. He thought of doing it again, repeating the process until he was imagining the atoms that bonded to form the wood, and the quarks that formed the atoms. It was all energy in a different form, and magic was holding that energy and doing something with it.

When he'd summoned the sword, he had taken ambient energy from the universe, forming quarks, fusing them into protons, neutrons, and electrons. He made atoms and molecules into a specific shape and grew it into a powerful blade. This was nothing compared to that.

"Volante _,_ " he said again, to the same effect as before. The pencil didn't so much as shake, and Izuku glared at it. "Volante, volante, volante!" Nothing, nothing, and nothing.

He threw his hands in the air and collapsed into his chair. What the (as he'd learned through reading to be a real dimension) cosmic hell! He'd done his reading; complicated incantations like the sword summoning were leagues above simple one word actions. Is he supposed to skip as step, because as several of these books had implied, and sometimes vividly depicted in moving picture, that could end with him blowing up!

He huffed as he slammed his head against the table. What was he missing? What did he do last time that he didn't do this time? As he thought on it, he came to the conclusion that the answer was nothing. All he'd down last time was say the words. The magic had done its well… magic. There was next to nothing that he'd done for that spell.

Then a thought occurred. He really had done nothing for that spell. He said the words, but that wasn't all there was to any magical ability. A connection between the castor and object had to be made. Except he'd never done anything to connect to the sword. So how did he summon it, how was the energy drawn in to him?

"Zelma did it." Izuku knew before he opened his mouth. "Zelma connected me to the energies before I said the incantations. It was how she was talking to me, she opened me up to the magic before I'd even cast the spell."

Izuku practically dove towards the pencil before sitting down with it in his hand. He mentally broke down the pencil until is was a glowing mass of energy again, but then he did the same to himself. Every cell and every microbe, broken down to its most fundamental unit. Under the most intense microscope, him and the pencil didn't look the slightest bit different, and that was his connection.

The ring on Izuku's finger shined. It sped up with his heartbeat as he felt an invigorating wave roll over him. It was like taking a cold shower, but staying warm. His breaths felt cleaner, his smell sharper, and as he opened his eyes he saw the room in brilliant color.

Izuku stuck his hand out, and tentatively let the pencil roll out of his hand.

" _Volante_ ," he whispered. Before the piece of wood even touched the carpet, it stopped. Izuku couldn't catch his breath. Perfectly still, and an inch of the ground, the pencil floated as if it was held by an invisible hand.

"Alright," Izuku cheered. He jumped off the floor and danced around the levitating pencil. "I did it, I did magic!"

In the midst of his cheering, Izuku didn't notice the pencil begin to turn. Slowly at first, and then akin to something like a twirling baton. When Izuku looked down to continue admiring his handiwork, the pencil was running at the speed of a helicopter blade.

Not feeling any difference in his body, Izuku wondered if this was still his doing. He gently stuck out his hand and attempted to slow it down. Surprisingly, the pencil respond to his commands, sort of. It began to slow its rapid spin for a more controlled twirl, but Izuku could feel the current under the waves. He wasn't controlling it very well, and it was trying to pick up speed again. All that held it at bay was Izuku.

Without warning, the pencil stopped. It was still floating, but it didn't have the violent undercurrent that Izuku had felt before. Izuku smiled thinking he had gained control over it before a sharp pain stabbed through his palm.

He yelped in surprise, the pain wasn't so bad, but the shock had caught him off guard. Gripping his palm in his other hand, Izuku tried to rub away the stinging pain. It was like an ant bite, supremely annoying, but ultimately harmless. Was it the price for this specific spell? It was certainly less intense than he'd imagined.

He was so caught up in the odd sensation that he didn't a few key things. Firstly, the pencil wasn't spinning, but it was now violently shaking. Second, it was putting off an absurd amount of heat. Third, the door to his room was opening.

Still looking at his stinging palm, Izuku noticed something strange on his peripheral. The room, which had been well and evenly lit before, now seemed to have dancing shadows. Looking back at the pencil, Izuku saw that it was on fire. A golden yellow aura of flames was enveloping the pencil.

"Ahh!" Izuku stumbled back, hitting his head against his bed frame.

Instinctively, Izuku yanked his hand towards the ceiling. The pencil followed his path of movement, taking an abrupt vertical turn and flying through the ceiling. The pencil had pierced through the ceiling of his room and the roof of his house, leaving a neat, a singed, hole straight through.

Izuku stared at it, and felt his heart race. After a moment of trying to calm himself and start breathing regularly, Izuku realized that he was breathing normally. He was hearing someone else catch their breath.

Izuku didn't move a muscle. He knew, he just knew, that it was Zelma. He'd look up and see flaring nostrils and angry eyes. She'd probably have a tirade ready about how he shouldn't have been using magic without her supervision, or how he could have endangered himself with a reckless use of magic. His heart skipped a beat at the thought of her revoking his right to use magic.

Could she do that? Probably. She said something about being a sorceress of the highest caliber, she could have a million and one ways to punish him. No he was starting to break a sweat. Why was she just waiting there? Was she going to make him apologize before she berated him, or did she just want him to stew for a few moments?

"Izuku?"

He shivered. That was not Zelma's voice. That was definitely not Zelma's voice. Like, if there was a spectrum for voices, this would be the opposite end it. "What was that?"

Izuku looked at the pair of shaking knees that stood in his open doorway. He worked himself up from the light grey sweatpants to see a woolly pink sweater that rested on the woman's shoulders. Above that set of shoulders was a full head of silky green hair done in a bow and ponytail. Her features were a lot like Izuku's, if not a bit rounded out and softer.

"Izuku?" she repeated, "What just happened?"

He didn't respond, nor did he break eye contact. His mother had just seen him telekinetically control a flaming pencil to shoot through their roof. How did he explain that? It was a trick? Sure, and so was the hole in their roof and the burning carpet.

Oh crap, the carpet's on fire. Pushing himself off the floor, Izuku begin to furiously stomp out the growing embers that threatened to consume his bedroom, not noticing his mother was now on the verge of tears. While he dug his heel into his burnt carpet, Izuku heard his mother sniff.

Preparing for the flood of tears, that apparently all of the Midoriya were able to produce without limit, Izuku was surprised to see a hopeful glint in his mother's eye.

"Do you have a quirk, Izuku?"

'Lie!' he ordered himself.

"Yes." Izuku stiffly said, "I caught my pencil before it hit the ground with my mind." Izuku gulped, "And then I set it on fire… also with my mind!" he rushed to explain.

There was a long pause in which Izuku deadpanned, and Inko stood silent, equally bald faced. Izuku silently prayed to any and every god he could think of (magic textbooks had informed him of the existence of a few hundred already) that she would take his words at face value.

"This is wonderful!" she cried.

"Yep," Izuku shortly replied, still in disbelief this was going so well. Then again, what else was she to think of what she just saw? As far as anyone knew, magic wasn't real.

"Izuku, aren't you excited, you can be a hero!" Inko Midoriya rushed to hug her son, who was so busy keeping the story straight in his mind that he didn't register what was going on.

"This is awesome," he said dumbly. "I-I can't believe it."

"Oh this is so great," she squeezed her son with uncanny strength, "We can register you in the morning, this is so incredible!"

With a totally flat tone, Izuku drooled, "I've never been so anxious."

"I love you sweety, I'll call the office right now." Rushing out of the room, Inko stopped just long enough to smile at her son one last time.

Once he heard her footsteps reach the ground floor, Izuku crumpled to the floor.

"I can't believe that worked," he sighed.

"Me neither," Izuku snapped to alert, "You are an awful liar, and stiff as a board too."

Izuku knew that voice to be Zelma's. It was surprisingly lacking in anger or malice, but Izuku couldn't help but fear it. He couldn't see her still, but her voice wasn't projecting in his mind like usual. She was here, physically, in his room. He thought so anyway.

"Are you talking down to me because you're about to pass judgement like a vengeful god for using magic without your permission?"

"What?" she exasperatedly sighed. "I'm invisible boy, and right in front of you."

The section of the room before him began to bleed away like fresh paint in the rain. In hardly anytime at all, Zelma started to come into view. She stood in her typical armor and bodysuit, an impish grin on her features.

"Can you teach me a spell to see invisible things?" Izuku pondered aloud.

"Aren't we confident, asking me to teach you after you disobeyed one of my direct orders." Anger still absent from her voice, Zelma loomed over her pupil. That grin looked a little less impish and a little more demonic.

"Are you going to forbid me from using magic now?" Izuku flinched away as she chuckled.

"Dear boy, that isn't what you should be concerned about." Zelma reached to her hip, and Izuku saw his life flash before his eyes.

'She's gonna kill me, I knew it.' Flickering his eyes to anything that could save him, Izuku realized that nothing in this room would save him from a powerful mage like her. 'I have one option.'

For a single moment, Izuku and Zelma locked eyes. Izuku tensed his legs, and Zelma twiddled her fingers.

"Congratulations/ Please have mercy!" Izuku kneeled before his teacher while she held out her palm.

Izuku realizing that he hadn't just heard her incorrectly, looked up to see his master snickering at him. In her hand was a badly burned and splintered number 2 pencil.

"I thought you might want to keep a memento of your first independent use of magic." Izuku could tell from her voice that she was holding herself back from laughing. "I do hope you aren't too put off by it."

"I'm not," he insisted. "I was just expecting something else. And how did you even get this? I just sent it flying."

"Apportion," she plucked a piece of lint off of Izuku's shoulder, and in a puff of smoke it was replaced with a short bit of string. "It's a simple spell that allows one to replace one item with another. The only conditions are that the two things be relative to each other in mass."

"Woah, that sounds awesome!" Izuku was already thinking of all the potential uses for a spell like that. "When am I going to learn that?"

The paused for a moment. She looked at his doorway, where his mother had stood, and then turned back to him.

"I'm afraid you'll have to learn that on your own if you intend to do it anytime soon. From now on, your training will be a bit more focused towards specific magics."

"Why?" Izuku asked, "What happened to building up my base and find my specification later?"

"Your mother happened," she sternly pointed out. "She witnessed your use of mage-craft and now she intends to have you register what you just demonstrated as a quirk. In order to align your growing abilities with your perceived quirk, I'll be teaching you select skills. Now tell me, do you know how this registering process will go? Is there a need to demonstrate your '"quirk" or do they test your DNA?"

Izuku cupped his chin and pondered for a bit. "No, no demonstrations, but you have to provide details about your abilities."

"Well perhaps we should work out those details now," she lowered herself on a leg while she waved her hand. A comfortable looking chair appeared beneath her.

"Is now the best time?" Izuku poked his head out of his doorway, "My mom could be coming back any second."

"Could, but won't." Zelma motioned for Izuku to sit down. "I've slowed her kinetic motion by a factor of several billion. She feels normal right now, but in truth she could spend the next hundred years finishing her next step."

Izuku blinked. He stared in Zelma's eyes before admitting, "I'm not super comfortable with you using magic on my mom."

"It's not harmful and she won't know any different, now sit down. We have a story to get straight if I remember correctly," Zelma conjured another chair across from her and looked at Izuku expectantly.

Deciding not to annoy the person that could potentially leave his mother like that forever, Izuku took his seat. Assuming his thinking position, hunched over with his hand on his chin, Izuku began to speak.

"I told her about the telekinesis part, and about how I set it on fire, so she'll probably think I inherited that part from dad. But I need to word it carefully. Do I say it's two independent actions, I lift it and set it on fire, or is it just one ability, I lift it and as a result it sets on fire."

"I could teach you spells for each action respectively, but it seems rather inconvenient to have them both be a single action." Zelma suggested, "It was the first use of your "quirk," as far as anyone knows, so call it an accident."

"It was an accident," Izuku ashamedly admitted. "I didn't actually mean for it to start burning."

"Oh that," Zelma snorted, "You said the spell wrong, and as you've read, mistakes in magic are typically fatal. Next time, volantes, not volante."

"That's something else," Izuku leaned forward. "It's not unheard of, but it's still strange to yell out your attacks every time you use your quirk on this dimension."

"And you wish to learn some non-verbal magic so as to appear less dubious." Zelma hummed to herself, "That will limit it us, but it is for the best."

"So I can learn to do magic without words?" Izuku hopefully proposed.

"Any spell can be done non-verbally, but it is difficult. One must master a spell before they can manipulate it as such," she jabbed a single finger towards Izuku. "That means slowing down the number of spells you'll be learning even more. Your training will be a matter of quality over quantity."

"Starting when?" Izuku asked.

"Now," she stood up and walked towards Izuku's window. Reaching under her shoulder plate, Zelma pull out a single knife. Small, about the length of one's finger to their wrist, but Izuku could almost feel how sharp it was. With a quick jab, she stabbed into Izuku's wall just left of the window.

"Why?" Izuku cried out, but Zelma ignored him.

She pulled out four more knives and a stabbed each one into Izuku's wall, encircling the window. Once she finished, she took a step back and lowered her head.

Izuku continued to stare at his punctured wall (and roof) until he her a hum come from the woman. He slowly creeped towards her, though she seemed to ignored him. She kept her head lowered, hair shrouding her face. Still the high speed thrum seemed to reverberate off of her very being. Izuku was almost worried, but as he reached out to poke her back to her senses, she snapped her up upwards.

"Alright," she rolled her neck out, releasing a few audible pops. "Izuku, jump out your window."

"Excuse you," Izuku replied.

"Oh no, please. You first, I'll be right behind." Izuku didn't move. It took him seeing the lack of mirth on her face to understand how perfectly serious she was.

"Um, this is the second floor." Izuku gestured.

"I'm aware of our elevation." Zelma stood unmoved.

"So that spell you were humming," Izuku prodded, "Is that to keep my from breaking a leg on the fall?"

"No, not at all," she didn't hesitate.

"Do I have a choice in the matter," Izuku started to undo the latches on his window.

"No." she said. "Not at all."

Izuku lifted up the window and stuck his head out, gauging just how badly this was going to go.

"Could we fix my roof first?"

"When we come back," Zelma insisted. She started to tap her foot, to which Izuku sweated.

"This isn't how I saw today going," he sighed. Gripping the sides of his window sill, Izuku jumped up to catch his foot on the opening.

With one last deep breath, he pull himself up and out. There was a second of free fall, and Izuku yelped. Keeping his eyes closed, he prepared to eat a healthy amount of dirt.

Right as Izuku should have felt the impact of his tiny body on the Earth, he opened his eyes. He'd hit something, but it was not the ground. This was too… bouncy. It was like soft rubber, and it gave like a trampoline.

Izuku lifted himself up and felt the ground wobbled beneath his hands. It was like some putty-jello-rubber fusion. It was kind of comfortable, but Izuku did find himself wondering…

"What the hell just happened?"

"I turned your window into a portal," Zelma descended from above, landing gracefully, but sending waves that pushed Izuku off balance. "This is what we'll call the training space. Normally I wouldn't make one for someone that's still so fresh to the magical arts, but you have demonstrated how uncommonly bad you are at this."

"Thanks," Izuku drooped.

"So I've decided that this is where you should practice your spells when I'm not here to supervise."

Izuku looked around and saw that the room didn't have a discernible end. It was like an infinite universe unto itself, not unlike that found he'd been trapped in so many years ago, but this had light. In fact, it was colorful, like tie dye or the sky of a setting sun. It was almost childish…

"Is this a magical play plan!?" Izuku accusatory pointed at his master.

"Don't think to much on the labels," Zelma grinned at the boys obvious dismay.

"You're a jerk," Izuku huffed.

"Don't be so disturbed Izuku, I've presented you with an infinite training ground." She reasoned, "And I'm even giving you your first spell to master while you're here."

"How do I get in and out if you aren't here?" Izuku asked while Zelma opened up a portal in the air which dropped a massive pile of sticks.

"You get in by jumping out your window," she pointed up into the sky. Following her finger, Izuku saw his window, and through it, his room. "And you get out by calling out 'Home,' but today is a special case. The way home won't open until you can successfully use this spell, 10 times in a row."

On que, a single dry twig floated up from the pile and set itself down in between Izuku and Zelma. She held her palm towards it and whispered, " _Ignium_."

The stick burst into flames, almost explosively. Izuku stumbled backwards before looking at his teacher, and then to the massive pile of sticks.

"If I only have to do it ten times, then why are there so many sticks?"

Zelma simply laughed, "Oh, you think this will be simple, that's adorable."

Like a ghost, Zelma began to fade away, seemingly bleeding out of existence itself. She disappeared with a grin on her face, leaving Izuku alone with the pile of sticks.

"That was deeply concerning," Izuku said to himself.

Walking over to the pile, Izuku took out a single stick and threw it back a few meters. He widened his footing and put his palm forward the way his teacher had.

" _Ignium_ ," he said. Instead of the stick catching fire, an explosion went off in the palm of Izuku's hand. Rather than the stick catching fire, Izuku was launched into the large pile.

Getting out of it, Izuku stared at the stick he had intended to burn, completely untouched. Looking down at his arm, the lower half of his sweater's sleeve had been blown off, and the parts that remained were burning tatters.

"I hope she unfroze mom," the boy sighed.

In a puff of smoke, an old yellow parchment appeared in front of Izuku. In bold lettering at the very top were the words, ' **She's back to normal speed, but here's a few other things I forgot to tell you.** "

'I already don't like what she's going to say,' Izuku thought.

' **The first is that time doesn't pass faster in the playhouse, I mean training dimension, than it does in yours. One minute out there is one minute in here, so time is still of the essence. Next, the training dimension has several innate healing abilities, so you don't have to worry about hurting yourself... unless you cut your head off. There's very little I can do for that.** '

Affirming that for himself, Izuku looked down to his palm. While the clothing was still in tatters, his actual hand was just fine.

"Huh," Izuku smiled, "This is good news actually."

' **Finally, the cost of the particular spell I taught you is something of a delayed effect, so pace yourself and emphasize control.** '

Izuku reread that line, "Delay? By how- AHH!" Izuku couldn't finish that sentence as an intense, and ironic, burning sensation seemed to eat away at his stomach.

Now curled over and dry heaving what felt like char out of his lungs, Izuku noticed that the room apparently wasn't going to heal him from these sorts of pains. But, much like his failed attempt to levitate the pencil, the pain was brief, and it was more the shock than anything that had taken him.

"If your- hack-," Izuku spit out a small piece of coal (no really, charcoal) and continued, "Just sending out helpful advice, is there anyway I could maybe lessen the pain. I feel like if I'm already dying mid-battle I'm all the way useless."

Seemingly in response, another puff of smoke appeared before him. Hidden within in was another letter.

' **Mages use their bodies as conduits for all sorts of cosmic and ethereal energies. In the same way that a larger piece of wire can conduct a larger charge of electricity, I stronger body can better handle the strain of magic. In simpler terms, exercise. A lot.** '

As soon as Izuku had finished reading, both papers curled up and into themselves, becoming tighter and smaller until they seemingly popped out of existence.

Alone in the endless, vibrantly colorful, expanse of his new training place, Izuku pushed himself off of the ground. Sitting up, he stared at the pile of sticks, and grinned.

"I _could_ complain, but honestly, magic is fun."

* * *

 **Chapter 2 is done, and I hope you enjoyed. Just a few side notes, I'm okay with OP character stories, but I just suck at writing them, so this isn't going to be that. Izuku's training and progress is going to be a slow crawl because he isn't a natural prodigy like every other anime protag, and he is severely limited in what he can practice now that Inko has seen his "quirk."**

 **Also, aren't you happy for Momma Midoriya, now she thinks her baby boy has inherited both his parent's quirks. This is everything she wished for.**

 **Super thanks to everyone that followed and favorites, mega thanks if you left a review, and LET's Go Plus Ultra.**

 **P.S. The sludge villain incident never happened in this AU, but we will see some interactions between Izuku, Bakugou, and All Might before he gets to U.A.**


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: My Hero Academia is the property of Kohei Horikoshi and various production companies.

Key:

Normal Speech: "Sup my dude."

Screaming: "WHERE THE HELL DID IT GO!"

All Might: " **Midoriya my boy!** "

Thoughts: 'This was a horrible decision.'

 **Hello true believers. Welcome to the mystical world of the Moon Moon's imagination. With him is his good friend…. It's just me. I'm a lonely dude. Recently I just lost my girlfriend, she's not dead she just broke up with me, and I've been procrastinating like a mother fucker. Anyway, I'm trying to get out of my funk with this chapter.**

 **Thanks for the love guys, I really feel good about this story, and I see this one going places, but only because so many of you are supporting me. But you know what would be even better? If marvel would make more games like the new Spiderman for all its characters. I want to spam fireballs as Doctor Strange, I want to use magical kung fu as Iron Fist, I want to fight crime in Madripoor as Wolverine. Just saying. But you don't come here for the rants, you come for the stories.**

 **So, voila.**

* * *

Izuku didn't think of himself as a violent person. Katsuki was a violent person. At times, some heroes could be violent people. Of course, he could list of throes of villains that could be called traditionally violent people. Compared to them, even in his most extreme moments of passion, Izuku was not a violent person. Despite this, he did find himself, for lack of a better term, irked at the small wooden stick he was holding in his hand. The other day, he'd been able to light it on fire quite easily. Of course the painful side effects of using the magic to do so still plagued him, but even the aftereffects had begun to wayne to a less tortuous effect. He was no longer spitting up coal! Though he'd spent about a third of his morning scraping the black residue off of his tongue.

He was in such a good mood afterwards that he decided to celebrate. He went outside, and after falling in a fresh puddle, grabbed a stick off the nearest tree. After setting it on the ground, he whispered the magical words, Ignium. The slightly damp stick sizzled, sputtered weakly for a while, and finally smoked a dab, before settling. Confused, and just a little panicked that he'd somehow lost his mojo over the night, Izuku tried again. This time, barely a wisp of steam was produced. He tried again and again, the spells effectiveness diminishing with each use, until finally he gave up on it. He ran back into his room, jumped through his window and into his training world, and violently swore at himself.

Turning on the pile of sticks Zelma had conjured for him to practice, he screamed the word Ignium. This time he was taken aback. The entire pile was set with such a mighty blaze that the heat rolling off of it could have roasted him. After the shock, Izuku felt the familiar thrill of magic run through him again. Invigorating, alive, and warm. He cheered for himself, and promptly keeled over to spit a very large and very warm piece of coal. As soon as he could stand, he ran over to kick through the blaze for an unburnt stick, and took it with him back through the window. He tried the spell again, finding it to be a success. Another glorious blaze was set in his kitchen sink. It confused Izuku, and he expanded on the reasons why.

The first theory was that he couldn't use the spell outside the training room, but he'd clearly disproven that just now. The next possibility to run through his mind was that the wood Zelma had summoned him was just extremely flammable or perhaps they came from a tree that was very sensitive to magic (like he'd read about in one of the many textbooks he'd received). Running along that train of thought, Izuku dug through the kitchen draws for a particular item. After a quick sifting through the many utensils in the drawer, Izuku pulled out a wooden spoon and dropped in into the sink next to the still burning stick. Once again he used the spell and once again he created another safely contained fire.

Now he furrowed his brow. Strolling outside he found the very stck he'd tried to burn minutes earlier. Poking at it, he found that the places it he had managed to smolder and singe were brittle, and they broke away easily. They were ashen. They had burnt. He'd used the spell correctly, it just wasn't' working on this stick in particular. At least particular parts of it. Rolling it, Izuku realized what parts specifically. Looking back to the puddle he'd fallen into, he saw that it was the damp parts of the stick that wouldn't burn.

Upon that discovery, Izuku laid down on his bed to ponder. And the longer he pondered, the angrier he became. So, as stated before, he didn't believe himself to be violent, but he also didn't believe that he'd every want to aggressively strangle a stick. So, he could be wrong about things is what he was getting at.

"I can't burn it because it's damp," he hummed, the even tone of his voice concealing his animosity of all things pertaining to rainy weather, "This is inconvenient."

Behind him, the chair to his desk pulled itself, and into its seat materialized his master, Zelma. She humorously chuckled.

"Truly, that is one particularly annoying fact of magic. It tends to obey the regular laws of physics when they are most inconvenient."

Not even shocked at her surprise entrance, Izuku asked, "Does this mean that if a villain runs through a sprinkler I can't throw a fireball at him?"

"As far as I'm aware, you don't know how to throw fireballs period. But no, if you threw a proficiently large one I assure you it will hurt them all the same."

Izuku sat up and slowly asked, "So if I want to set this wet stick on fire," he tossed it for effect, "I need to do it...harder?"

"With more power, yes," she corrected, "And no, that doesn't mean saying the spell louder. Don't go screaming at things to explode."

Izuku squirmed under her look, seeing that he was very much about to do that, and merely sat the stick down.

"Alright, how do I make the spell stronger?"

"Pour more magic into it," she said simply.

"How do I do that?" he asked quickly, eager to overcome this obstacle.

"You've been channeling magic by using your body to act as a conductor for greater energies," she pointed at him, "That's why you have a physical reaction to using magic. Your body is the conductor. More power will require a more powerful conductor. A more powerful body."

Before Izuku could ask how he went about doing that, Zelma had moved to his window and jumped through. Izuku followed suit. Even though he was only a step behind her, Zelma had moved a great distance into the world, and had cast a large portal into the sky of his training ground, if you could call the endlessly high ceiling of the dimension a sky. At once, a sea of sand started to pool out of the hole in the sky, pooling on the floor before the master magician. When it finally reached an amount that doubled her height and spread out the length of a room, Zelma raised her hand and closed the portal. The flow abruptly stopped, and Izuku stood in wait. He'd seen her crafted her weapons out of this stuff a few times before, but it was always a small amount of the substance that became what she needed. What was she going to make with all of this?

Like she heard his question, Zelma looked back and said, "To make your body stronger is to do exactly what you think it means. Train."

The sand began to spread, condensing into various shapes, changing colors and morphing around itself. A long thin trail began to make a long oval, and the rest of it moved within that oval to form many shapes. They began to make metal and black bars. The oval became a grassy pathway while the things within it became the most awful torture devices Izuku had ever seen: weight machines! Pull up bars and various other instruments took form as Izuku began to walk forward. The remained of the sand that hadn't gone into making this mini gym collected next to Zelma and became a chalkboard, with a list of activities that Izuku was not looking forward to. It was 50 items long and filled with exercises both basic and complex, and some of which Izuku had never heard of.

"You're going to make me do all of this?" Izuku looked at his teacher incredulously.

"Of course not, this is going to take a very long time and I have places to be," she looked down at the boy, "You will be doing this on your own, unless you'd like to be known as the magician that can't overcome damp wood?"

Izuku grumbled, but never one to give up, he walked forward and read the first exercise.

"Pull ups," he whimpered when he looked at the specific number, "I can't even do 5."

Huffing, he jumped up to the bar to begin. As his fingers curled around the bar, he seized. Izuku felt like he was being put through a ringer. It was more like the bar was trying to suck the life out of him through his arms. It was like Izuku was feeling a spiritual pressure, one that went deeper than his own physical body. Speaking of which, Izuku wheezed. He would be the first to admitted that he didn't exercise as much as he could have. Ever. But, he'd been fixing that. He'd started doing his cardio and push ups and such at the park. So why was this singular pull up taking him so much effort.

After a second or so convulsing like a fish out of water, Izuku dropped to the ground, at once getting on his knees to catch his breath. It was after his palms flew off his knees that he realized his was covered in a neat sheen of sweat, and his heart was pounding in his chest. His breathing was ragged as well. It looked like he'd just run a mile, not attempted a pull up.

"Oh, I haven't recalibrated the restriction spell," Zelma remarked dully, "You could have died just now. I'm quite proud of you."

"The hell!? What do you mean 'You could have died'?" Izuku looked up, his vision swinging between intense brightness and almost total black, "What just happened? Why do I feel so weak?"

An array of sigils projected off of Zelma's arms as she spoke, "Now that you have magic, it's tied itself with the rest of your life force. Suddenly stopping it is the same as abruptly stopping your own heart."

"Could you make me heart stop beating actually?" her ward asked with total seriousness, "I think I'm having a stroke."

The sigils surrounded the entirety of the new training grounds and began to glow violet. The metal and weights within the space vibrated in tune as they took began to glow a purplish hue. Izuku, who'd moved to lie on his back, watched as the machines turned to the same color of the grey sand they had been formed from before returning to the black and grey they had been before. Owlishly, he marvelled at the process, while Zencho continued.

"I have many preset spells on many things boy, and my Dust is no different," she delicately moved her fingers in the air as she spoke, writing invisible words, "This one so happens to restrict the flow of magic in living organisms upon touch. When you touched the bar, the energy within you became stagnant, and you found it hard to move, yes?" Izuku nodded patiently, very intrigued by her words. "I'm lowering the level of resistance, but it will affect you the same way it did before if you don't consciously circulate your power through yourself. In essence, you will be doing a spell that does nothing while you train your body."

"I think I understand," Izuku started, "It'll be like training with weights on, but instead of straining my body, it'll strain my magic. This'll make my power stronger, right?"

"No," Zelma said plainly, as a few of the runes returned to her, and few few piece of equipment stopped vibrating, "This will train your body, and that is one way to increase your magical container, but the resistance to your magic circulation will increase your control. By willing your energy to move within yourself, you'll achieve a greater understanding of it's natural movement. Become aware of its presence in your everyday life. Feel it within yourself, and you'll be able to manipulate it to a greater degree. Focus less on the power, and more on the skill."

As more and more floating symbols returned to their place along Zencho's arms, Izuku raised a brow, "Then how do I solve the power issue?"

"Repeat the spell. Actually, repeat any spell," she said as the last sigils stopped glowing and all of the materials returned to their grey and black metallic colors. She waved her hand and on the end of the grassy track apparated another pile of sticks, "Magic is a skill like any other, and you increase your proficiency through practice. There are no shortcuts."

"Then why didn't you just summon more sticks?" Izuku gestured to the new equipment that was essentially his own personal gym now, "Why the whole imitation gym."

Zelma laughed, "I told you, if you intend to go forward as a hero that only uses fire and levitation, we'd have to advance the speed of your training. This is how we'll be doing that. Typically, a practitioner of the magical arts would learn to feel the magic within them over time, but we don't have time for that. I'm shoving you into the deep end, as they say."

Izuku made to ask another question, but was silenced by his teacher's palm. She pointed to the bar once again, and Izuku mentally groaned. Pushing of the ground, he walked under the pole and took a few deep breaths. Shuffling in place, Izuku mentally prepared himself. He closed his eyes and tried to feel within himself. He needed to circulate the magic within himself. That was easy enough. He would never forget the exhilaration of using magic for the first time, nor the first time he'd used a spell himself, although he'd done it incorrectly. It was like having a heart made of lightning and feeling fire in your fingertips. The air was clean and his body was light. There were no aches or bruises that he could feel. It was like flying.

It didn't take long before Izuku shook. But these weren't violent tremors of pain, but more like he was vibrating. He was resonating on the same frequency as something else. Something close? Something very close, and very... His eyes opened wide as he looked down to the ring on his finger. It was the thing he was vibrating with. Resonating with on a level him just couldn't explain. It was glowing as well, shining like a diamond in the light. Before, it would pulsate in tandem with Izuku's heart, but now it was like a soundless drum, the pounding of which only he could hear.

"Hmm, feeling the presence of magic is much easier if you have something so intimately connected with you as that," she assessed, as Izuku rolled his shoulders.

Quickly, while the feeling was strong, Izuku jumped and firmly gripped on the bar. Near instantaneously, the feeling began to wayne, but Izuku was not dissuaded. He immersed himself in the magic, revelled in it, and pushed it within himself again. The power ebbed and waned, and Izuku hung on the bar like a doll while he chased the sensation. Finally, when he felt that he firmly had it in his hand, Izuku pressured it. As if it was water in a cup, it began to overflow, and the feeling of lightning in his veins returned with a furious passion. Izuku knew he could maintain this, he just knew, but there was a glaring issue with that.

As he hung on the bar, he found that it was quite impossible to move and hold on to the magic at the same time. Abashedly, Izuku glanced to his master and dared to ask, "Could you lower the resistance a little more, please?"

With a mock curious hum, Zelma sighed, "No, I've made the spell as weak as I'm capable. You'll just have to make do."

"How!?" Izuku pleaded as his shoulders started to burn.

"I'd love to help but I've got somewhere to be later, good luck Izuku," she waved as she began to back peddle in a freshly opened portal, "Also I've set the room to stay closed until you've finished everything on the board, and practed Ignium on all the sticks."

"What!" Izuku barked. That board had at least fifty exercises! And he was only vaguely aware of some of them.

"Relax," Zelma placated the boy, "I've left refreshments."

She pointed to behind Izuku, where two bottles of water and a steaming bowl of rice sat on a dinner napkin. Before he could hope to complain, Zelma had closed the portal, leaving him to glare at empty space.

With a huffed, Izuku dropped from the bar, this time landing on his feel, and walked to a open space.

"Fine, I just start with push ups then," he said to no one.

Placing his hands in the position, Izuku attempted his first only to fall flat onto the ground. Once again, he felt like his soul was being sucked out of his body, and to explain the strange phenomena was a small strip of paper that landed on his nose.

" _The floor is enchanted with the same magic as the bar. So is the track, and the pile of sticks, and anywhere else you thought of going. Similarly, all of the equipment has identical wards._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Your loving master that only wishes to see you exceed in adversity_."

Ripping the paper to shreds, Izuku yelled to the very high ceiling, "You're a jerk!"

Instantly, he heard marks being made on the chalkboard. Another two exercises were now scrawled along the bottom, with a golden smiley face to accompany them. Izuku resisted the urge to cry, unknowing of the smile that his master wore as she returned to her own devices.

* * *

Drenched in his own sweat and feeling that the pit in his stomach was more than just a lack of food, Izuku pulled himself into the window of his room. "That bowl of rice tasted like dirt," he spat, collapsing into the bed, and muffling his groans as he stretched sore muscles. After a minute of silence, Izuku lifted his head and scanned the room, "What? Are you not here?"

Sitting up, Izuku scanned the room, though he didn't really think he'd be able to see her regardless. Not a metaphorical hair was out of place. Fatigued to the point of exhaustion that he was, Izuku managed to catch a glimpse of the wooden stick that had plagued him that very morning. He reached out, and rolled it over in his hand once more. It was dry now, and without a doubt in his mind, Izuku knew he could easily char the offending instrument black and crisp. He also knew that it wouldn't have been satisfying.

Slowly, so as not to aggravate his already tired body, Izuku rolled out of his bed, and trotted down the stairs. At the foot of the steps, Izuku heard the clink of silver wear and realized that his mother was washing dishes.

"Izuku," she started, "Did you burn my good spoon? I understand that testing your quirk is important to you now, but there were plenty of sticks outside to practice on...Why are you sweating?"

She had turned around to see the haggard condition of her son. His clothes were ruffled, his hair, or at least the parts of it that weren't adhered to his face by sweat, was even messier than normal, and he was practically leaving a pool of sweat behind him with every step. Even as he brought a hand up to scratch his neck, she observed as droplets flung off his arm from the motion.

"I did push ups," he simply stated, using the stick he carried to scratch his neck.

"You're sweating an awful lot," she asked concernedly.

"I did an awful lot," he sighed, "Do you know what time it is?"

Ignoring her son's overly casual attitude to his own state, Inko Midoriya looked to the clock, "It's almost 3 P.M., why?"

"I was just thinking of going somewhere," Izuku thought about the fact that he'd spent the last few days isolated in his room, studying, and practicing magic, "I haven't really been going out lately."

With that, Izuku stepped outside and threw the stick into the nearest puddle. Immediately retrieving it, Izuku set in on the concrete of the sidewalk and smiled. Right now, he'd never been more tired. Lifting his arms was a chore, and if he'd needed to run for his life right this second, he'd just have to go ahead and die. He was vaguely aware of his growing headache as well, yet he had never been so satisfied. The first time he'd used magic had been a fleeting moment. And ever time after was the same, but right now, he was sparkling with it. It surely wasn't as intense as before, but the thrum of a magical current under his skin was still it's own little pleasure. It was like permanently drinking hot chocolate on a cold day. At the moment, it was fading, but while it was with him, Izuku could power through at least one more spell.

Without raising his hand, Izuku said, " _Ignium_."

Immediately, the stick expelled a cloud of steam. The intense heat Izuku had conjured baked the stick dry in an instant, and then the flame came to life. Faster than it ever had before, the stick was consumed by a bright flame, but instead of the angry dark red, Izuku's fire burned a lighter shade of red dotted with flecks of almost orange.

As a black smoke wafted up from the now smoldering pile of ash, Izuku shot his hands into the air, "Ha!"

Izuku hunched over, laughing at his own little accomplishment. Going from being able to set a stick on fire to setting a wet stick on fire. Surely, it wouldn't be a cause for celebration in any other circumstances, but Izuku could help but take pride in it. At the same time, Izuku could feel the magic in him slow its circulation, settling down underneath the surface where it always had been. He let his laughter petter off, and he waited for the cost of magic, pain, to kick in. Instead of a kick, however, it was a love tap. A mild, momentary discomfort that couldn't even wrinkle his nose. Izuku was sure it was an unrelated twitch of the muscle. But as he waited longer, nothing came.

With a jump, Izuku replayed the same words in his head before mumbling to himself, "Magic follows the rules of physics. Magic is about conducting energy. I'm using my body as the conductor."

A whip of wind blew past Izuku's ear, and he knew before he turned around that his master was behind him.

"And as the exercises required you to consciously circulate the magic in your body, you were forced to become a more efficient conductor."

"The cost of magic is pain, but the pain isn't just for using the magic," Izuku's eyes widened, the gears turning in his head as he spoke, "It's because I wasn't circulating the energy right. It was damaging the conductor, wasn't it?"

An airy chuckle that seemed to be carried by the wind reached his ears, "I'm very proud of you, little magician. You've made a very important discovery today."

"I can lessen the pain by becoming a better conductor. And to become a better conductor..."

"You need to understand the magical power within you," Zelma congratulated the boy with a pat on the back, "But, you should understand that training this aspect of magic is in many ways the easiest and hardest part of learning magic."

The young man's head dropped, "Of course it is."

"I'd like to issue you another method of training," she said seriously.

"Of course you would," he sighed.

Aggravated by his touch of attitude, she gripped his shoulder a bit tighter, "Circulate the magic in your body again, and continue to do so until you have revitalized your body's natural stamina."

"That's doesn't sound so-" he was cut off by the sound of a clink and cold metal surrounding his wrist.

"While wearing this." With that last word, Izuku dropped to his knees. Having been familiarized with the sensation all to well in the last few in hours, Izuku dug into his waning magical supply and started to spin it again.

As soon as he could stand again, he whipped around to yell at her, but paused upon seeing her new attire.

"You're dressed normally," he dully observed.

Indeed she was dressed differently. She was a simple black long sleeved shirt under a faded jean jacket. Her long gray jeans went just over the openings of her navy blue sneakers, complementing her dark blue beanie, which covered the top of her head. The rest of her hair was drawn in a french-braid hanging over her shoulder. In this, she looked a bit younger, into the late twenties if anything, although she didn't look old to begin with. She was the typical American girl, although dressed modestly compared to most others. The flashiest piece of her attire was a pair of glasses with white carvings that showed brightly against her darker skin tone. Izuku didn't doubt for a second that they were enchanted with some way.

"These are my civvies," she stated flatly, "And they're a fair bit more comfortable than my armor."

"I bet," Izuku then shook his arm than was now decorated with a silver chain of links, "And can I take this off? I'm kinda low on magic and I just finished my training for the day."

"You will never be finished training," Zelma corrected and admonished, "And you will wear it when I order you to. As for your magic running low, rest your worries. Circulating it within yourself doesn't consume power, only expending it does. In fact, consciously stimulating it will only aid in recovery."

"Oh, that's good to know," he said in relief, "I wish you would tell me these things in advance."

"It was covered in the books I've given you," Zelma stressed her words, "Have you not been reading?"

Abashed, Izuku admitted, "I might have skipped a few things."

"You went straight to gods and monsters," she guessed.

Izuku nodded. Kicking the ground, Izuku looked around and asked, "Are you wearing civvies because we're outside?"

"Partly, but also because we are about to go somewhere else," she snapped her fingers.

Izuku blinked. There surroundings had rapidly changed. For one, he was dry now, the sweat on him having disappeared. His clothes had changed as well. He was dressed for colder weather now, a thick orange windbreaker over a long sleeved shirt as well as blue jeans defended him from a chilling gust of wind attacked him. Zelma and Izuku were standing in the middle of an alley. The street before them was bustling with people, and without a courtesy motion Zelma bleed into the crowd, leaving Izuku stunned by the radical change in scenery.

Overcoming the lag, Izuku chased after her, "What just happened? Where are we?"

From a few steps ahead Zelma called back, "New York."

Izuku whipped his head around and saw a few iconic figures, one such being the dauntingly huge empire state building.

"Oh, wow, All Might spent a few years doing hero work here," he looked around with starry eyes, before his synapses started to fire, "WHAT!?"

"We're in New York," Zelma waited at a stop light as Izuku caught up and had a mild panic attack behind her.

"Why?" he cried, small, comical tears in the corners of his eyes.

"I'm introducing to a few people," she stated without much in her voice to imply she was concerned with his panic.

"What about my mom?" he pleaded. "She's going to panic if I just disappear."

"You told her you were leaving," Zelma took long steps towards the other side of the street as the light turned green.

"Not to New York!" he pointed at the distance were the vague shaped of the statue of liberty could be seen.

"She doesn't know you've gone so far," Zelma argued, "Does it really matter all that much?"

"It does!" he shouted, "It definitely does."

"Oh, calm down," she waved, "What have you read about sanctorums?"

"Don't just change the subject," Izuku, shivered as another cold wind blew past.

Unflinching in the cold weather, "Changing the subject is what one does when the previous topic is finished. Sanctorums, what do you know of them?"

Miffed that she was dismissing his distress, Izuku dug into his memory. There was a chapter or two on sanctorums right before magical realms and spaces in one of the older bindings.

"It's a place full of magical practitioners. They train, eat, sleep, and develop their magical prowess at those places. Every universe with intelligent life has at least one," Izuku quoted.

"That's right. Right now, your universe's sanctum is located in the basement of the empire state building."

"Is that where you're taking me?" Izuku weaved his way through a haughty looking group of suits and ties.

"Ha! No, that can't happen," Zelma laughed, "If you attempt to touch the barrier without a certain amount of magical power, you'd be incinerated. Needless to say, but as a beginner you don't quite meet the requirement."

A dark cloud raining over his head at Zelma's laughter, "Where are we going then?" he asked dejectedly.

"We are going to meet the master of this world's sanctorum and their apprentice at a cafe," she held up a hand to preempt his next question, "We'll be discussing the plan for your education."

The boy's throat hitched, and he asked nervously, "Are you going to stop being my teacher?"

"Of course not, little magician," she smiled, "But I'm not of this world, and I have more than a few problems to deal with in my own. Something threatens the balance of my world's existence nearly everyday," she exasperatedly sighed, "And an idiot named Stark recently angered a celestial."

"A what?"

Zelma sharply responded, "It's unimportant what it is, just know that it and many other problems like it can take my attention away from you at a moment's notice, and I can't let that impede your progress."

"So, I'll be part timing with this new guy?" Izuku almost bumped into Zencho, who came to a sudden stop, and abruptly turned left.

"That is something we masters will be discussing while you and the other apprentice go somewhere else."

She opened the door and ushered Izuku into a quaint coffee house. The smell of fresh grounds and fresh baked sweets flooded Izuku's senses. A welcome defense from the cold outside, Izuku quickly scanned the room for what might look like another master and apprentice. It was a fruitless effort, as everyone looked as unassuming as the person beside them. It didn't take long for Zelma to shuffle past customers with Izuku in tow and settle at a table with two occupants already waiting. The older of the two, a young man in his early twenties, possibly even late teens, had a steaming cup between his hands while the younger, a girl the same age as Izuku curtly nodded to them both.

The young man sported black hair and green eyes, which fluttered between Izuku and Zelma. He wore an unassuming hoodie and jeans. He looked every bit the unremarkable college student Izuku would have thought him to be, but way she sat. Izuku was careful not to show any disrespect. This man was a master of the mystic arts, apparently on the same level as his own master. And at such a young age too, Izuku could imagine the talent and skill he must have had.

The young girl beside him looked equally unimpressive, but being so close to her, Izuku felt a sort of air. It was the way she impassively observed them, and how she sat. Her chin high, shoulders pulled, and her back perfectly straight, she was almost the image of royalty. Her skin was pale, and her face dotted with freckles. She had her bright orange hair pulled pulled into a tight bun. She was dressed more elegantly with a dulled yellow dress that matched the golden brown in her eyes, but covering her shoulders was a white shawl.

Izuku waited for the man to introduce himself and his student, but was surprised when his fellow disciple made the first move.

"Good evening, master Zelma," she flicked her eyes to Izuku, "Young Midoriya, I presume." She spoke with the same royal dignity she looked to possess, and Izuku pondered on why she was speaking before her teacher.

Receiving a nudge from his teacher, Izuku hurriedly said, "Yes, that's me."

"Well, I think that our students should go speak elsewhere," Zelma started, "Izuku, do mind yourself in the city. No matter what universe you re, New York is a force to be reckoned with."

Izuku nodded and stood up nervously. The young man across from him stood up as well, presumably to let his student slide out of the booth, but when she made no move, Izuku looked to her, and she looked back.

"Are you waiting for someone else?" she asked, a daring edge in her voice.

"Um, I thought us apprentices were leaving together," Izuku squirmed under her sharpened gaze.

"Yes," she clicked, "They are."

Another pause filled the air, and Izuku followed her eyes to the young man that was standing next to him. He looked back at Izuku and turned about.

"Um, do you want a coffee before we go?" he asked innocently.

"Huh?" Izuku dumbly asked.

"He hasn't got American money, Nathaniel, they just teleported from Japan," the young girl pointed out.

"Huh," Izuku snapped his head back to the girl, barely older than he was with wide eyes. She'd called with Nathaniel, without any form of honorific or title.

"Right," he rubbed his head, "My bad, Master Henrietta. Let's just head out Midoriya."

"Master?" Izuku repeated, "But, she's so small."

He'd of course meant to say young, but given that she was so very short in stature even for her age, Izuku had slipped in saying. This was, as they say, his ass.

A small snap was heard as the girls hair broke free of the tight bun and started to float as if gravity had ceased to have effect. The strands separated into thick tendrils that ominously squirmed like they belonged to some beast, and two long strands at the corners of her forehead raised higher into the air, like devil horns. Her wheat golden eyes glowed, darkening slightly toa more metallic shade, her pupils settling on him.

"Zelma, I believe we should work out the finer details of this arrangement, but I'm not convinced I should train him after all," her even voice and unimpressed face didn't not properly represent the suffocating aura she was exuding, "Do you think I could put him through a little test of mine for now?"

Izuku fearfully looked to his own teacher, who thought for a bit.

"He did just finish some intense training of his own," she conceded, "But this should be good for him. For safety, I'd like you to send your own student along as well."

"Of course," she said, flicking her wrist. A portal opened behind the two boys.

"Can we avoid this if I apologize?" Izuku asked.

"I guarantee we can't," Nathaniel groaned, "She's the unforgiving type."

Zelma snickered, jabbing her finger at the two of them. A telekinetic shock Nathaniel off of his feet, launching him violently into the maw of the wormhole, and Izuku glanced around to see that absolutely no one was paying them any mind. Gesturing to this, Izuku asked his teacher a question.

"Notice-me-not charm?"

"You have been reading," she clapped, pleased as punch to his dutiful nature.

"Get going boy," Henrietta impatiently ordered, "Training is essential to growth."

"Wow, I guess you haven't done much training then," Izuku whispered.

"Excuse me!" She rose out of her seat while emitting a furios pressure.

"Time to train!" Izuku speed through the portal with newfound energy.

The portal closed, and the young of the two masters settled down. While she conjured a new hair band and began to tie her hair back into a bun, Zencho hummed.

"Where have you sent them by the way?" Zelma was of course wary of sending her new apprentice into the fray of real danger.

"No where my apprentice can't handle," Henrietta replied.

"And mine?" Zelma asked, the first hints of apprehension entering her voice.

"What about yours?" she dryly spat.

"Could you just tell me the place," Zelma bargained, "I'll cover your next cup."

Intrigued, the little master responded, "Very well. It's actually in your neck of the woods. A place called-"

* * *

Izuku took one whiff of the air and took off his jacket. The air was hot and thick with humidity, letting Izuku know right away that this was not the place for a jacket and jeans. Nathaniel too, under the oppressive heat, took his hoodie off to reveal armor, though it was less traditional than Zelma's, and more like something off a SWAT officer.

"Are we in some jungle?" Izuku asked.

Before he companion could answer, a shrill shriek filled the air, as did the sound of something akin to a blade cutting through the wind. Turning on a heel, Izuku was unprepared for the sight before him. Brown leathery skin peeled over a set of wings the span of a bus was breaking through the sky and diving right for him. The head of the beast was like a long triangle, angry eyes beset on either side, and the sharp beak that the face came to a point at looked ready to drive through him.

"Down!" Nathaniel, screamed.

Listening to him, Izuku ducked under the beasts path, and it soared over him. The wind trail behind it nearly pulled Izuku off the ground, but as he rolled over, Izuku got a better look at the beast as it twisted in the air to come in for a second strike. It was no beast, but something that Izuku had only seen in movies. A beast from ancient days.

"That's a..." Izuku licked his lips, his mouth now very dry, "I'm think it's a... Did she send us back in time?"

"No, this wasn't time travel," Nathaniel, held his hands between him, a sparking power growing between the palms of his hands, "These are the Savage Lands."

Izuku let the words reverberate in his mind. Savage lands were right. It perfectly described the wind plant life, the sweltering climate, and the giant pterodactyl coming down from it's ascent to skewer them both.


End file.
